Body communication system, media access control bridge, bridge apparatus, and operating method of bridge apparatus

• US 8,565,206 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2011
• Issued: 10/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Lee, Cheolhyo, Nam, Hong Soon, Lee, Hyung Soo, Choi, Sangsung
• Primary Examiner(s): HAN, CLEMENCE S
• Application Number:
  US13/335,822
• Publication Number:
  US 20120163359A1
• Time in Patent Office: 670 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13196 Connection circuit/link/trunk/junction, bridge, router, gateway
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/38 for collecting sensor information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A human body communication system is disclosed, which includes a plurality of intra-body communication apparatuses, a plurality of extra-body communication apparatuses, a bridge apparatus, and an access point. The bridge apparatus manages connections between the intra-body communication apparatuses and the extra-body communication apparatuses, and performs packet exchange. The access point performs packet exchange between a plurality of bridge apparatuses. The bridge apparatus performs negotiation with communication apparatuses to set up a connection, and manages a path based on the connection setup.

Claims

1. An operation method of a bridge apparatus, the method comprising:

receiving a packet from a first human body-related network using a first communication protocol;

checking whether a connection setup for the packet is made;

checking a receiver address of the packet based on the connection setup; and

if the receiver address of the packet belongs to a second human body-related network, transmitting the packet to the second human body-related network using a second communication protocol.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, if the receiver address of the packet belongs to a remote human body-related network, transmitting the packet to a base station by using a third communication protocol.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein:

if a connection for the packet has not yet been set up, performing negotiation with a communication apparatus of a destination network of the packet; and

if the negotiation is successful, setting up a connection for the packet.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein

the performing of negotiation comprises:

acquiring information of the destination network; and

performing the negotiation based on the information of the destination network.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising, if the negotiation fails, changing the connection setup condition or performing the negotiation again after a predetermined length of time.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising, if the receiver address of the packet belongs to the first human-body network, transmitting the packet to the first human body-related network by using a first communication network.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first communication protocol is a protocol for intra-body communication, the second communication is a protocol for extra-body communication, and the third communication protocol is a protocol for a wireless LAN.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

extracting management information from a header of the packet; and

checking the state of resources assigned for transmission of the packet based on the management information.

9. A bridge apparatus comprising:

a first media access control part for a first human body-related network;

a second media access control part for a second human body-related network; and

a media access control bridge part for managing a connection between the first human body-related network and the second human body-related network.

10. The bridge apparatus of claim 9, wherein the media access control bridge part receives a packet from the first human body-related network, and if a receiver address of the packet belongs to the second human-body related network, sends the packet to the second media access control part.

11. The bridge apparatus of claim 10, further comprising a third media access control part for communicating with a base station,

wherein, if the receiver address of the packet belongs to a remote human body-related network, the media control access bridge part sends the packet to the third media access control part.

12. The bridge apparatus of claim 11, wherein, if the receiver address of the packet belongs to the first human body-related network, the media access control bridge part sends the packet to the first media access control part.

13. The bridge apparatus of claim 11, wherein, if a connection for the packet has not yet been set up, the media access control bridge part sets up a connection for the packet by performing negotiation with a communication apparatus of the destination network of the packet.

14. A media access control bridge comprising:

a first interface manager for exchanging a packet with a first human body-related network;

a second interface manager for exchanging a packet with a second human body-related network; and

a connection setup manager for setting up a connection when an initial connection is made, sending the packet of which a receiver address belongs to the first human body-related network to the first interface manager, and sending to the second interface manager the packet of which the receiver address belongs to the second human body-related network.

15. The media access control bridge of claim 14, further comprising:

a first buffer;

a second buffer; and

a data traffic manager that stores a packet received from the first human body-related network in the first buffer and stores a packet received from the second human body-related network in the second buffer.

16. The media access control bridge of claim 15, wherein the connection setup manager sends a packet whose receiver address belongs to a remote human body-related network to a TCP/IP layer.

17. The media access control bridge of claim 16, wherein, if a connection for the packet has not yet been set up, the connection setup manager sets up a connection for the packet by performing negotiation with a communication apparatus of a destination network of the packet.

18. A human body communication system comprising:

a plurality of first human body-related communication apparatuses forming a first human body-related network;

a plurality of human body-related communication apparatuses forming a second human body-related network; and

a first bridge apparatus for managing connections between the plurality of first human body-related communication apparatuses and the plurality of second human body-related communication apparatuses.

19. The human body communication system of claim 18, further comprising:

a second bridge apparatus for managing a connection between a third human body-related network and a fourth human body-related network; and

a base station for performing packet exchange between the first bridge apparatus and the second bridge apparatus.

20. The human body communication system of claim 18, wherein, if a connection for the packet has not yet been set up, the first bridge apparatus packet sets up a connection for the set up by performing negotiation with a communication apparatus of a destination network of the packet.